196 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



foibles, together with the homely virtues of Dame 

 Partlett, are so admirably set forth. 



And longer ago it was perhaps such a note as this, 

 heard in imagination by the cock-loving Athenians, 

 which all at once made them feel so unutterably 

 weary of endless fighting with the Lacedaemonians, 

 and inspired their hearts with such a passionate 

 desire for the long untasted sweets of security and 

 repose. Is it one of my morning fancies merely — 

 for fact and fancy mingle strangely at this still, 

 mysterious hour, and are scarcely distinguishable 

 — or is it related in history that this strange thing 

 happened when all the people of the violet-crowned 

 city were gathered to witness a solemn tragedy, in 

 which certain verses were spoken that had a strange 

 meaning to their war-weary souls t " Those who 

 sleep in the morning in the arms of peace do not 

 start from them at the sound of the trumpet, and 

 nothing interrupts their slumbers but the peaceful 

 crowing of the cock." And at these words the 

 whole concourse was electrified, and rose up like 

 one man, and from thousands of lips went forth a 

 great cry of " Peace ! Peace ! Let us make peace 

 with Sparta ! " 



Hark I once more that long clarion call : it is 

 the last time — ^the very last ; for all the others have 

 sung a dozen times apiece and have gone to sleep 

 again. So would this one have done, but cocks, like 



